Abdul Jabar Sabet

Who is Abdul Jabar Sabet?

Abdul Jabar Sabet is an Afghan politician. In May 2006 Hamid Karzai appointed him Attorney General of Afghanistan. Sabet is an ethnic Pashtun.

Sabet was a long time aide to former Afghan Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. After leaving Afghanistan, he worked in the U.S. for Voice of America

After living in Montreal, Sabet returned to Afghanistan to work for a human rights organization, before being appointed special adviser at the Interior Ministry. He was promoted to Attorney General in May 2006. Sources close to the President Hamid Karzai say that Sabet was promoted with U.S. support in exchange for giving positive comments about the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. He has however been critical of the Guantanamo release policy. A series of articles on former Guantanamo captives, published by the McClatchy News Service, quoted Sabet commenting that the release of Guantanamo captives seemed to be divorced from the captives' role in the Taliban, and to be focussed largely on whether the captives complied with the camp rules.

In April 2007, Sabet launched a violent raid on Tolo TV for what he thought was a "distorted" report on his comments regarding the country's judicial system. Seven journalists from the TV station were taken to his office by force without warrants and severely beaten.